The service sector posted a 0.6 percent expansion as health care and welfare businesses offset sluggish showings by the restaurant and accommodation segments.

Exports, the key engine for the local economy, gained 1.7 percent from three months earlier, growing at the fastest rate in a year.

Private spending slipped 0.3 percent, reflecting the impact of the mid-April ferry disaster that damped consumer sentiment as the nation mourned for some 300 victims, mostly high school students on a school excursion. It also marked the first on-quarter contraction since the first quarter of last year.